Fighter jets scramble over airline terror alert
RAF Tornado F3s have been scrambling each month after 9/11 to shadow commercial airliners that behave oddly while in British airspace. Next July the Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft will take over some of this role.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpey, the Chief of the Air Staff, told The Times that after 9/11, heighten terrorist threat now means that any deviation from a strict flight plan tends to trigger an interception by a Tornado.
Before that there were no interceptions of airliners and that there had been a long period of "zero" Quick Reaction Alert operations after the end of the Cold War.
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